Becoming a psychologist, one of the highest-paying social science careers, takes a great deal of advanced education and experience. Psychologists must also be licensed. Another kind of credential, known as board certification, is optional but valuable. Board certification is a credential awarded by a professional organization that demonstrates your competence in an area of specialty. In a field as broad as psychology, being certified in one of the many different specializations can prove to employers and clients that you are highly qualified in your field.
The Benefits of Board Certification
Becoming board-certified isn’t mandatory to work in the field of psychology. Unlike a state-issued license, a doctoral degree and a considerable amount of experience, board certification is optional.
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Why would someone who already went to so much trouble to become a licensed psychologist spend the additional time, money and effort to become board-certified? Certification offers a host of benefits.
Having board certification on your resume will improve your job marketability a great deal, especially in certain fields. If you want to work in certain disciplines of psychology, you’re likely to find that some health care providers consider board certification to be a minimum requirement for a role in that field and that health insurance companies expect psychologists in that area to be board-certified, according to the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP).
If you choose to be self-employed in private practice, you may not have an employer to answer to, but there’s a good chance your patients or clients will take whether or not you have board certification into account when searching for a provider. This is a big deal, since self-employment is more common among psychologists than employment in other industry, accounting for 29 percent of the field, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Another reason you might find board certification worthwhile is the potential boost in earning power. If you work in a uniformed psychologist role with the federal government’s Department of Defence or Public Health Service, having board certification entitles you to a specialty pay bonus – not once in your career or even annually, but every month, the ABPP reported.
Another benefit of having board certification in your chosen specialty is that it can facilitate license mobility. A license to practice psychology is awarded by the state in which you practice. Getting a new license to practice in a new state, if you were to move, can be a hassle. However, many states have reciprocity agreements contingent on board certification that can make it easier for a psychologist to move or expand their practice to another state, according to the ABPP.
The necessity of board certification depends on your area of specialization as well as your state’s and employer’s requirements. Working in a healthcare field may make board certification more crucial, while the credential may not matter as much in an area like business and organizational psychology.
Becoming Board-Certified
Board certification in most specialties within psychology is awarded by the ABPP. This organization consists of separate specialty boards in 15 branches of psychology. These branches include:
- Clinical psychology
- Counseling psychology
- School psychology
- Clinical child and adolescent psychology
- Geropsychology
- Clinical health psychology
- Clinical neuropsychology
- Psychoanalysis
- Group psychology
- Couple and family psychology
- Rehabilitation psychology
- Behavioral and cognitive psychology
- Organizational and business psychology
- Forensic psychology
- Police and public safety psychology
To become board-certified in any of these fields under the ABPP standards, you generally need a doctoral degree and an active license to practice in the field of psychology. Each specialty board is permitted to establish its own unique requirements, such as accreditation requirements, postdoctoral specialized training requirements and minimum requirements for professional practice experience. Candidates for board certification must undertake a process that includes a credential review, practice samples and an oral exam.
Becoming board-certified can be a lengthy process. You can expect to complete this process within two years in most specialties, but in the specialty of forensic psychology, becoming board-certified can take three years. Acquiring board certification in clinical neuropsychology, awarded by the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN), can take as long as seven years.
After acquiring initial certification, you must go through a Maintenance of Certification process every 10 years to keep your certification active and intact.
Additional Resources
What Degree Do I Need to Be a Psychologist?
What Are the Specialties of Psychology?
The Hidden Benefits of a Degree in Psychology